Events:
1554 – Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, were executed within the Tower of London just a year after Jane was put up to be Queen of England after the death of her cousin, Edward VI. Edward’s council was looking to Jane, a protestant, to displace the catholic Mary, older half-sister to Edward. Mary initially planned to spare Jane and Guildford, but ordered their execution after an uprising to displace her. Jane was 16 or 17, Guildford was about 19.

1689 – The Convention Parliament in London decrees that James II and VII’s flight to France was the equivalent to his abdicating the crown of England. James fled at the invasion of his son in law, William of Orange, in what is now called the Glorious Revolution. James was the last Catholic monarch of the British Isles.

Birthdays:
1074 – Conrad II, son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV was born in Germany. He would later become King of Germany and King of Italy, and was heir to the Iron Crown of the Empire. However, after he sided with the Pope against his father, he was deposed as King and died early at age 27.

1768 – The future Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire and Austrian Empire is born today in Italy. He became Holy Roman Emperor at age 24, after the death of his father, Leopold II. He would dissolve the Holy Roman Empire and form the Austrian Empire, after Austria’s defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, making him the last Holy Roman Emperor.

Deaths:
1771 – Swedish King, Adolph Frederick died at age 60 in Stockholm. While he was liked for his personality, he is regarded as a weak ruler, with most power lying with the Riksdag of the Estates. He had been King for 22 years, and his son, Gustav III would attempt, and fail, to reinstate an absolute monarchy.